Haven

A sinkhole under the guard tower leads to adventure

Captain Ivan Planet was awakened in the early hours of the morning with news that a sinkhole opened underneath the guard tower, and the two guardsmen on duty fell through the floor, and are nowhere to be seen. After speaking with the Patriarch who suggests a few fellows in town that may be able to help in the search for the missing guards, Ivan sends missives to each of them to meet at the tower at dawn with promises of rewards upon success.

Dawn breaks while Captain Planet waits for the others. The first to arrive is Jo’n the town priest, an elderly man with white hair, and a scraggly beard, a hunch, and a plodding gait. Ivan sighs upon seeing him and reflects on all the paper work he’s had to file over this lecherous old man.

“Good morning, Jo’n.” Ivan responds dryly. “Yes, a few guards have gone missing. Surprise, surprise Brent is one of the missing. That incompetent lout cannot even fall through a hole without making my life difficult. At least there will be paperwork afterwards. Form 12c, and surely 27c-1a. I love that one.”

“I hear a reward is being offered for helping to find a few missing people.” a voice says from the shadows. Walking into the lantern light in front of the tower is a man in dark clothing with his hand on the hilt of his rapier. “Craig Doppledeaner, servant of the great Duke Nuk’m, at your service.” he says, bowing and flourishing his hat. “Missing guardsmen? I’ll find them. Stolen valuables? I’ll retrieve them. Anything you need, I can do…for a price.” he says as he straightens, smiling.

“There will be payment in your assistance, of course.” Ivan replies. “200 gold upon completion, but only when we retrieve the missing guards and investigate what’s beneath the town.”

At this point a dwarf in heavy armor approaches with a smile splitting his face. “A sinkhole opened under the guard tower and the guards have gone missing? This is important information to make note of. Certainly the guild will want to know of this and many other things. I’m not a spy!!!”

“OK…well now that we’re all here let us venture forth.” Captain Planet says turning to the large double doors of the guard tower. “What’s your name?” He asks of the dwarf.

“Vec. Vec’s the name and spying is my game…I mean not my game. I don’t spy. Ever.” The dwarf replies frantically.

Inside the guard tower there is a huge hole in the floor of the ground level that leads down into the darkness below. The party secures a rope and lowers themselves down into the cave system underneath the tower. With a few torches, and some magical light from Jo’n, the party gets their first glimpse of the system. Vec notes that much of the stone has been worked, and that the cave is not completely natural.

Out of the darkness a few beetles with glowing antenna scurry towards the light. The party swiftly dispatches the creatures culminating with Capt Planet squashing one with his shield that becomes stuck with the glowing bulbs on the end of the beetles antenna, providing a little extra light beyond what was already present.

A little bit of exploring later and the party comes upon a small group of kobolds, one seeming more important than the others, discussing something in their yippy draconic dialect. Surprisingly the heavily armored dwarf steps forward and shoots a bluish ray out of his forefinger at the fancy kobold, turning him to dust. The others immediately turn on the party and charge, but are quickly dispatched. Jo’n takes the headdress from the fancy kobold and places it on his own head.

After having interrogated the one kobold they left alive they learn that there is another, rival, clan of kobolds within the caves planning an attack on the town. Though suspicious of this information they let the kobold go and press on towards the location of the supposed other clan.

Locating the cavern where the second clan is residing was of little difficulty for our group of exceptional adventurers, but what they found was far more than expected. The huge cavern some fifty feet below the surface according to Vec was filled with kobolds, but the party knew that they must defeat the creatures to protect Haven and rescue the missing guards.

A long battle ensues with some kobolds hurling strange concoctions at the group that held them in place for a time, and others that explode with tremendous heat. Other kobolds seemed to have wings that allowed them flight and proved to be quite annoying, but were eventually defeated leaving only a few kobolds and their leader to surrender to the party.

The leader reveals that they were not the ones working the stone or trying to get into the town, but it was instead cultists that used the cave system as a route into town. They then guide the party to where the cultists typically originate in the system before moving deeper and out of sight. (They do not investigate every area available so don’t know where the kobolds are going.)

Left at an intersection by the kobolds the party stands a bit befuddled, but Craig quickly discovers that one wall secrets a door into another passageway. Finding the opening mechanism quickly the cavern wall slides to the side revealing a well hewn corridor lit with torch laden sconces.